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Saturday, 30 August 2014

If you have played or read my SWTOR article on the Galactic Starfighter mode, GoD Factory is similar to that. There are 3 different game modes, each giving the player a different experience, plus the ship builder is where you can 'release your inner design guru' creating all sorts of different ships, the tutorial for the new players and the online mode.

img from http://images.fpsguru.com/articles/images/4000/3512/GodFactory4.jpgThe Features

The first thing I did was to play some online battles, each battle consisting of different objectives; for example destroy all enemy fighters. Having played some GSF ( Galactic Starfighter ) I had no problem figuring out the controls and after your first few matches you will become a pro in no time. Now the great thing about this game is that you can fly just about anywhere. Sometimes you can get space combat that is fixed and you have no ability to move but this game is so different it even gives you the option to change ships during the battle. Also, 'the artwork in this game is incredible'. When you're flying around shooting things, take a moment to appreciate how well detailed the planets and ships around you have been designed. Now depending on your race: Ar Blossom,Chorion, Guantri and Human.You have different abilities during combat : for example as a human you can use a decoy ship to fool your opponents.

Now for all you tricksters out there, this game has something for you too! During the tutorial you are taught all kinds of skills to make a fool out of the enemy players, such as backflips, loop de loops and spins. This really helps you outwit the other players and add some flair and challenge to your game.

The Verdict

Even though this game can take some time to get used too, especially if you haven't played this style of game before, I do recommend you try it out. However I don't feel that this game is worth anything over the asking price of £14.99 (Around $20 ). This game can just get away with that price as long as they continue to bring out new free content and maps for the game. Still, GoD Factory Wingmen is definitely worth looking out for in a Steam sale and if you are a hardcore space shooter kinda guy than this may be the game for you!

With all this considered 'I give this game a 7/10'. This is because I don't feel that there is much content in the game and you could get bored easily if you played for a considerable amount of time.

Thanks to Joseph Walsh from Namco Bandai Games for sending us a review code!

Welcome back to Saturday Spending Spree! We've got lots of deals lined up today, but they're all subject to change so grab em quick! Anyways, the Deal of the Week this week is this Intel 520 series Cherryville 120GB SSD, which is only £39.98 at Novatech! SSDs transfer data quicker than a normal HDD, meaning that they're ideal to play games on, and this SSD is remarkably cheap, considering the normal SSD price!

Bad news today, as 320 Nintendo of Europe employees based in Grosstheim, Germany have been made redundant and will be laid off this week, Nintendo stated to Kotaku. As well as 190 temporary employees who were running out of contract time, 130 permanent employees are also being sacked. According to the Nintendo website Employee Relations Q & A which was written earlier this year, a total of 992 employees worked at the Germany office, meaning that the company will still have a pretty large workforce at 672 employees. Still, my condolences to all sacked employees.

The real question is why the 320 employees were sacked. Well, the Nintendo statement claims that the round of layoffs were to "better enable the European business to adapt the rapidly changing business environment.", basically meaning that, as products get more costlier, Nintendo of Europe will have to become more cost-efficient and the only may to do that is to decrease the workforce. That explains why the 130 regular employees were laid off, but what about the 190 temps? "Nintendo of Europe is reorganizing it's European Localisation Department" the statement claimed "in order to increase flexibility and cost-efficiency in the long term." Nintendo added that "It is intended that there will be an increase in outsourcing future translation and test activities to third-party companies on an as-needed basis." This basically means that, since paying companeis to translate or test something as a one-off is cheaper than paying salaries to workers, Nintendo of Europe have decided to go with the former option.

Friday, 29 August 2014

Another month and another list of Games with Gold games courtesy of Major Nelson. Once again, Xbox One owners just get the ONE free game, with Crimson Dragon staying from last month, while both consoles seem to get some good games!

Xbox One: Super TIME Force

Image from giantbomb.com

In Super TIME Force, you play as the group called the Super Time Force, a military division that travels in time, and your mission is to save the cute, cuddly dinosaurs from extinction. You'll do this by running through various bullet-filled levels, but you'll only have 30 lives to do it. Once you run out, you can rewind time to play as the same character again, or retry as a new one. Luckily, there are 16 unique characters, all with their own abilities and guns, so you'll (Hopfully) be able to beat this lead-sandwich of a game.

Xbox 360: Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine

Image from www.pcgamer.com

Hotline Miami has pixelated brutality, while Monaco has stylish, systematic killing. It's obvious that Monaco got it's influences from the mask-filled shooter, but Monaco changes more than enough to fend for itself. You can play as 8 different characters, such as The Locksmith or The Redhead. each with their own unique abilities that can tackle each mission differently. Go in silent, picking locks and hiding in the shadows, or you can just blow the place to high heaven, all while having a catchy piano soundtrack playing in the background. Thieving has never been so whimsical.

Halo: Reach

Image from www.pu.nl

As the last Halo developed by Bungie and as a prequel to the entire series, Reach was a big entry in the Halo franchise. It had a campaign that followed four Spartans who were fighting the bloody battle to keep the planet Reach from falling into Covenant hands, the trademark fun-filled Halo multiplayer with popular new modes such as Infected, the creative and fun Forge level edito and the co-op Firefight mode, a more open Horde mode where the only option is to survive.

RIVALRY-FUELLED news today, as it seems Google are getting their own back on Amazon after the online market nabbed video streaming site Twitch, a company that Google was rumored to want for many months. The revenge method? Building their own delivery drones and recording them delivering light-weight products to farmers in Australia and over a 1km distance, a feat that Amazon have not yet publicly matched since they announced their Drone delivery project. Google's project is called Project Wing and is the latest product to come out from their amazing Google X lab, the lab that created the Google Glass and the protyped Self-Driving Car.

As well as being used for delivering shopping, these drones could also be used in natural disaster situations, like delivering supplies and (Eventually) picking survivors up out of the rubble and carrying them to safety. It's far-fetched, but seeing what Google are capable of means that they could be working on things that are a lot crazier than this.

What do you guys think? Will Amazon or Google win the Drone Delivery Race? Tell us in the comments below!

"Soon, there will bii on type of ii in EVERY HOUSE IN THE WORLD!" (Satoru Iiiwata)

Biig news today, as Nintendo have made two large announcements for the coming years. The first is that new models of the 3DS and 3DS XL were announced in this Nintendo Direct video, which sees the revamped models of the popular handhelds given a variety of upgrades. Faster CPUs are promised, as well as a new screen that gives off the 3D effect in larger angles, a C button which acts as a second analogue stick, NFC reading tech for the new Amiibo range of NFC figures that Nintendo announced at E3, a micro USB slot for extra storage and an Internet browser that supports HTML5. The only downside of these new 3DSs is that some games will require you to have the updated 3DS, as they have the more powerful processor. Still, those apples do, indeed, taste rather sweet.

The second big announcement goes out to any parent who's wallet is currently busted on buying Disney Infinity and Skylanders figures: the first wave of Nintendo's NFC-using cross-game Amiibo figures has been announced on Twitter, and it's coming out this year! If you didn't already have enough ii in your life! Anyways, the first line of figures consists of Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Fox, Samus, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, Pikachu, Kirby and Marth, and the first game they'll be compatible with is Super Smash Bros for Wii U, where they'll be like physical Assist Trophies and will "Assist" (See where the name comes from?) you in your fight. Still, expect a lot more Amiibo compatible games next year.

What do you guys think? Do any of these new products tempt you? Tell us in the comments below!

Thursday, 28 August 2014

Playstation have announced (In a YouTube video) what exclusive items will be coming to Destiny only on Playstation - but there's a catch. PS3 and PS4 owners will get exclusive access to the Dust Palace Strike map, Strike being the endgame mode that requires 5 other friends to play, and the Exodus Blue PVP map, which looks like it's set in Old Russia. In Old Russia, 5 other friends require YOU to play!

Also there's some gear too! Each class get it's own set of armor; Titan getting the Vanir set, Hunter the Argus set and Warlock the Manifold set, plus there's two new weapons, the Hawkmoon (A handgun) and the Carlo (An auto rifle which Carlo is understandably excited about.) and last of all 3 ship designs. It's a pretty standard exclusive affair, but there's a revelation at the end of the trailer. In small print, Bungie explains that content is "exclusive until at least fall 2015". No one will really care about the exclusives by then, but this (And the timed exclusivity of Rise of the Tomb Raider) shows that, with huge million-dollar budgets, developers and publishers can't risk full exclusivity anymore, as they may not make as much money as they have the potential to.

Also, in other Destiny news, Xbox One owners can now pre-purchase the game on the Marketplace, Eurgoamer spotted. Both the standard edition and Guardian Edition (Which contains the Season Pass and other tidbits) are available to pre-order for £54.99 and £84.99 respectively, so if you want to play Destiny the minute it comes out, pre-purchase it exclusi- timed exclusi- on Xbox One.

What do you guys think? If you own an Xbox, are you annoyed by the Playstation-exclusive items? Tell us in the comments below!

Once again, the games for Europe's PS Plus lineup has been announced on the EU Playstation Blog, and once again they're all looking pretty swell, with PS4 having arguably the strongest lineup this time round. All of the new games come into the Instant Game Collection on the 3rd September, and last month's games leave the same day.

PS4: Velocity 2X

Image from www.futurlab.co.uk

The sequel to teleporting shooter Velocity, Velocity 2X mixes run and gunning and puzzles and platforming to form an amazing experience. Using the oddly-named Quarp Jet, you'll have to gun down and evade enemies in some type of sick spacerace, then dock at enemy spacebases and spacestealth your way through. If you didn't already know, this game has space involved in it. If Velocity 1 is anything to go by, 2X will be one fun and crazy experience.

PS4: Sportsfriends

Image from gutefabrik.com

If you're a kid thatspends his time in class on Foddy instead of going on Linguascope, this is now your favorite game ever. Including two of Foddy's masterpieces, Get On Top and a 4 player version of the popular Pole Riders, there's also no-screen-needed game Johann Sebastian Joust, BaraBariBall is soem evil, twisted version of volleyball and Hokra is minimalist game of hockey. Sportsfriends is the ultimate local multiplayer game.

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

That was the best picture I could find of Jeff Bezos. All the others were just shots of him using Bing and using Apple Maps.

Twitch have announced that Amazon have bought them out in an open letter by CEO Emmett Shear. According to Shear, there'll be no corporate reshuffling whatsoever: "We're keeping everthing the same: our office, our employees, our brand and most importantly our independenece." This means that Amazon will be treating Twitch how Facebook are Oculus VR: pumping in funds, but letting the experts do their thing. Since Amazon have their Amazon Instant Video streaming service, this should mean that Twitch will have improved streaming capabilities: "With Amazon's support we'll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch", CEO Shear continued. It's a good call that Twitch started content IDing videos and muting them if they included copyrighted music, as Twitch is with the big boys now, and can't let itself be brought down by lawsuits.

Still, why didn't the rumored deal with Google happen? Everything was seeming to fall into place: there were rumors abound for months and Twitch took the YouTube path and started to crack down on copyright? Apparently it's all to do with a thing called anti-trust laws, according to Forbes. They're basically what makes Capitalism, as Capitalism is all about companies competing for your money. However, Twitch and YouTube (Owned by Google) are in "direct competition" to each other, and if Google acquired Twitch, Google would really be the only company to use in the internet video market, because, let's face it, not too many people watch Ustream and Dailymotion. With Google being the only company competing for money, the internet video market would turn into a more communist, "one company fits all" market. Wait, where did this suit and tie come from?

What do you guys think? Will Twitch become a better platform thanks to Amazon? Tell us in the comments below!

"In this new DLC, Link will be riding his signature.. motorbike?" (Shigeru Miyamoto, never)

Nintendo have announced two new DLC packs for Mario Kart 8 on their Nintendo UK website! Instead of just getting licensed cars a la the Mercedes Benz DLC, the two packs are about some of Nintendo's other characters, plsu variations of their Mario peeps. The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8 (Because a game isn't Japanese enough until you put an X in the title) DLC will include Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach and Link, plus 4 new cars, including Captain Falcon's flagship Blue Falcon car, plus 8 new tracks, one of which being the returning Wario's Gold Mine, a popular track from Mario Kart Wii.

Still, none of this scratches my Mario Kart itch. I wanna be able to drive the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile!

The second DLC pack, Animal Crossing X Mario Kart 8, has a more secretive storefront page. There will be 4 new cars and 8 new tracks, none of which have been announced, plus Animal Crossing's Villager and Isabelle will be joining the fray, as well as Dry Bowser - you know, the skeleton kind. You might wanna get the other kind out of your head.

Anyways, the new DLC for Mario Kart 8 is showing that Nintendo are catching up with the times, and they're realising that, with poor Wii U sales, they'll have to release DLC to remain profitable. It's sad to see a company as pure as Nintendo doing this, but then again it's nice to see that Vilager won't have to worry about axes anymore, now that he's a joyrider.

Except now that he'll have to pay road tax. And petrol. God, that's depressing.

Both DLCs will cost £7 each, but you can buy them together for £11. If you pre-purchase the packs, you'll be able to get 8 different colored Yoshis and Shy Guys play as once you've purchased them!

What do you guys think? Are you happy to be getting more Mario Kart DLC? Or did you prefer when there wasn't any big packs released, like in Mario Kart Wii? Tell us in the comments below!

As you may know, our ALS Horror Highlight Reel was supposed to be up on the YouTube channel today, but sadly we couldn't do it as no one had the free time. We can't guarantee that we will do it, but if we get the chance, we will!

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

As you may know, I interviewed Scott a while back prior to the release of the first episode of his fast-paced racing game Chaos Ride, which, so far, is the only game we've reviewed to get a 5/5 rating. Now, Scott's back with us, and with the third episode of Chaos Ride in development, we decide to reflect on his 11-year career so far, talking about why Burnout 3 is the best racing game ever and what he would've been were it not for gaming. Probably something else.

Anyways, on with (Hope they're not generic) questions!

Gadgets and Khajiits: You've had a long and illustrious career, developing many Triple A games, while recently giving your career a rebirth and moving to indie developing. Which developing style did you prefer?

Scott Harber: If only it were that simple! As ever, there is no one development technique to rule them all.Case in point - AAA development is a slow but powerful beast. Prototyping is slow, design change are massively expensive, team sizes can span multiple continents , huge marketing budgets lead to immovable deadlines, and the whole machine is so large that it needs to sell millions just to survive. But at the same time, only a AAA team can deliver on sheer scale and complexity. For example, something like "The Last of Us" could only ever come from a AAA development process.On the other hand, Indie development is the exact opposite of this. The small team sizes and simpler game styles ensure that getting a game on the screen and making it fun is very easy, but, to be blunt, most indie games are retro platformers for a reason. The diminished scope makes development quick, but it also makes development small and simplistic.As a purely personal preference, I favour the indie development style over AAA, purely because the actual work is closer to why developers get into games creation in the first place.

Monday, 25 August 2014

God, this is worse than the time that Dominos got hacked and everyone knew that my favorite topping wasn't a type of meat!

Confusing news today, as the Playstation Network was hacked by a group who claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter. Sony's online service was down yesterday, but many people thought that Sony's scheduled Monday maintenance had just started it early, as a message came up on PSN saying that the service was "down for maintenance". However, don't panic, as no information was compromised, according to the Sony blog, and the service is back on, with the scheduled maintenance postponed until a later date. Don't worry, no one will know that you watched Magic Mike.

Anyways, the motivations behind this attack are unclear. On their Twitter page, the group claim a variety of reasons, from being taking over by notorious hackers Anonymous to claiming that Sony is a "greedy" company. A Sony spokesperson has told BBC News that the FBI are looking into the attack, so this attack could be on any scale. Blizzard's Battle.net service has also been attacked too, the company confirmed, leading to online problems for games like new release Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition, while big MMOs like League of Legends, RuneScape, Eve Online and Guild Wars 2 were all attacked. Microsoft's Xbox Live service is also expected to be attacked soon. Still, no data has been compromised, so everyone's safe. Looks like we'll just have to go outdoors!

What do you guys think? What was the reason behind these attacks? Tell us in the comments below!

Sunday, 24 August 2014

As anyone who isn't a hermit in an Italian cave knows, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been very popular, making millions of people look like mugs while raising awareness for ALS, a terrible disease that affects the spine and brain. As well as donating money and doing the Ice Bucket Challenge ourselves, we at Gadgets and Khajiits have decided that we're going to post a highlight reel of our funniest reactions whilst playing the nerve-racking P.T demo on YouTube this Wednesday, and we hope that it will encourage you to donate! We'll post a link when it's up!

After the news that Google's Self-Driving Car will be tested on British roads next year, the California DMV have enforced a new law saying that, if the big G want to test out their invention in The Golden State, they'll have to put in manual controls for the car in case of malfunction. The rules will take effect on September 16th, and, in my opinion, this is a good call. If the British government makes a decision, you should make the OPPOSITE of that decision.

Anyways, this will in no way grind the progress of Google's futuristic Beetle-thing to a halt, as this law only takes effect on public Californian roads. Still, Google aren't stupid, so they've decided to start developing a steering wheel and pedals, they told the Wall Street Journal. This will probably delay the testing on British roads, though, so don't expect these cars to be available to the consumer for at least 5 years.

What do you guys think? Are you getting skeptical about Google's car? Tell us in the comments below!

This week Microsoft held a conference at Gamescon. this conference sparked outcry and has become the topic of conversation among the gamer community. Microsoft focused on the Xbox One and the games that revolved around their next gen console, however this conference only really confirmed on what we had been told at E3 earlier this year: it's all about the games. So lets jump in!

The Rise of Tomb Raider

Our favorite action hero has returned, as an Xbox EXCLUSIVE! This news sparked outcry aimed at Square Enix for making this decision, especially since at E3 it was shown to be available on all consoles. Whether Square withdraws that decision later this year remains to be seen. This game is scheduled to be released in 2015. Personally I think that this was a stupid mistake by the developers as there are many Tomb Raider fans that don't own an Xbox and, being one of them, I don't intend to.

Halo 5: Guardians/Master Chief Collection

Halo 5 is another game that has been highly anticipated, Halo 5: Guardians and is teased to be the most epic installment in the series. We are also expected to see some of our favorite Halo 2 multi player maps in will be available in the Master Chief Collection! If you want to keep up to date, Microsoft has launched a new Halo Channel on their website, so take a look at that.

Xbox Bundles

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare is getting a bundle! It will include the game, a 1TB Xbox One with a gray and black surface and golden emblem, plus a headset , while another bundle, the FIFA 15 Ultimate Bundle, will include an Xbox One and a copy of FIFA 15! Lastly is the rumored Sunset Overdrive bundle, which includes the game and the new white Xbox One.

Indie Games

Also some indie games have been previewed for Xbox. PC MOBA Smite, time-bending shooter Super Hot, the amazing Goat Simulator and Minecraft-in-space game Space Engineers will all be coming to consoles for the first time on the Xbox One! It will be interesting to see how these PC games will adapt to life on the Xbox, especially a MOBA like Smite!

Trailers

Lastly, some new trailers have been previewed. Assassins Creed Unity got another gameplay trailer, as well as exclusives Fable Legends, a reveal trailer for the new Quantum Break and some more gameplay for Sunset Overdrive.

Well that's it on the reveals and highlights! Personally I am most excited for the Halo 5: Guardians; being a huge Halo fan myself, I am exited for any new content in the franchise!

Hope you enjoyed this article, and remember to tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Today, I will be reviewing the MMO Wildstar. This game was developed by Carbine Studios and was released earlier this year. This review may have come a bit late but the reason behind it is because WILDSTAR has over 200 hours of content.; I really wanted to enjoy the game and get the full experience before I reviewed it. And, if you know me, I am a VERY slow leveler. But anyway, here is the long awaited review of Wildstar. The next games on my reviewing list are Guild Wars 2 and ESO, so look out for them! :) Also as this game is relatively new, I don't want to give away major spoilers in this review, which is why it's shorter than other MMO reviews.

IMG from Wildstar.com

The Overview

Released earlier this year, Wildstar is a game of tremendous scale that takes place on the surprisingly beautiful palent of Nexus. So what makes wildstar special? Why not settle for WOW or SWTOR? Well WILDSTAR has all the features of these games and more. Player housing ? It's got it. Cross server queues ? It's got it!. It's features like this that make Wildstar worth subscribing to. I mean , SWTOR has only just launched it's player housing and is nowhere near able to do cross server queues. Wildstar is not just another MMORPG, it's the future of MMOS. Many games have lost subscribers to this game and I can see why.

Unlike the major MMOS out there this game doesn't let you access main story content till level 35. These single player arcs are actually really good. Eve though the questing to get there can be dull, the lore and history behind the game is fascinating to any Sci Fi fan or even just a casual gamer. Wildstar has eight playable species that are divided between 2 factions that are vying for control of Nexus.

This game is full of good features: the landscape has been beautifully constructed, yet you don't feel overwlemed by the vast world that is Nexus. Also, the huge customisation features in WILDSTAR put it ahead of other games out there. There is so much freedom to do what you want. Your character can be designed how you want it, weapons are unique and player housing gives you limitless opportunities to express your creative side. Plus this game is very good at addressing server population issues. Cross server queues are what keeps this game alive; this means that the PVP community will stay happy as you won't be waiting hours for queue pops.

PVE: Raiding in this game is incredible. Although the content is not as hard as other games, the ability to have 20 or 40 people on your raid team is a breath of fresh air. Loot from these raids is the same as other games; your top tier gear is dropped from Veteran Raids and the lower tier from Normal Mode.

PVP: There are only 2 battle grounds in Wildstar, both of them kinda sucking and lacking diversity. Like every MMO, PVP is a major part of the endgame and developers seem to have forgotten that. Just having 20 players fight over a single objective can become boring over time and if they don't add more maps soon, cross server or not, no one will play PVP.

The Verdict

Overall I feel that this game is young. Not even being a year old yet with so many features has to be a good thing. If the endgame content is not added onto over time the population will dwindle. Like other MMOs, the story and pre endgame content is entertaining, and if Carbine keep on this path, this could become a very successful game. Just keep adding to PVP and don't lose sight of your player base or they will soon disappear back to Warcraft and other MMOs.

That said, in my months playing this game I give it a 8.9 out of 10. The content was entertaining and the PVE features were strong. If they add more PVP zones and story content to the game, then maybe the score will improve.